Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 2934: Temptation Of Ephemera

The illusions faded completely, and the cavern fell into stillness once more.

The eye on the monolith dimmed to a soft ember, pulsing in time with an ancient, unseen rhythm.

Elder Mingshi turned toward Lin Mu, his expression unreadable—caught between reverence and expectation.

”Do you understand now?” he asked quietly.

Lin Mu narrowed his eyes. ”I understand that this Ephemera Tree isn’t just a relic... it’s alive. And it’s watching.”

Mingshi nodded. ”More than watching, Fellow Daoist. It waits. It seeks.”

”Seeks what?”

Mingshi folded his hands behind his back and spoke slowly. ”A vessel.”

Lin Mu’s gaze sharpened. ”A vessel?”

”Yes. One worthy. One whole. One who walks the path of the Heart—who bears clarity, sorrow, compassion, and resolve. The Ephemera Tree does not accept just anyone. For ages, it has slumbered, rejecting generation after generation of cultivators. But now...”

He turned to face Lin Mu fully. ”Now, it stirs.”

”...And you think it stirs because of me?” Lin Mu asked, voice dry as a sun-bleached cliff.

”We do not think,” Mingshi said solemnly. ”We know.”

Lin Mu crossed his arms. ”You’ll have to explain better than that, Elder.”

Mingshi took a breath and began to pace before the monolith.

”There once existed a sect—the Ephemera Sect, formed in an era so old that even the stars we now see had yet to be named. Its founders were three beings known only by their titles: the Crimson Root, the Crimson Thorn, and the Crimson Eye.”

He gestured to the surrounding city. ”The Hollow Eye Sect—what we are now—is but the lingering fragment of the Crimson Eye’s teachings. We are its last bastion in this world, the final branch still rooted in the soil of the Silent Lotus Realm.”

Lin Mu’s eyes flickered. ”Then you’re no mere cult... but inheritors.”

Mingshi inclined his head. ”Correct. And for thousands of years, we have waited in silence. For a sign. For a heart.”

”And you think I’m the answer?” Lin Mu asked, raising an eyebrow. ”Even after everything I’ve done to your people?”

”Precisely because of what you’ve done,” Mingshi said, his voice oddly gentle. ”Because despite power, you did not lose your self. Because you do not run from truth. Because you carry not only strength—but sorrow, empathy, conviction. Because you’ve accepted the burden of others... without asking for reward.”

Lin Mu laughed.

A deep, amused, rolling laugh that echoed across the black stone and rang through the monolithic chamber.

”You’re serious?” he said, shaking his head. ”You’ve been watching me, following my path, weighing my heart... just to ask me to become a vessel?”

Mingshi didn’t flinch. ”The path is sacred. So too is the choice. You have every right to refuse.”

Lin Mu stopped laughing and regarded the man coldly. ”You really think I’d let myself be possessed by some ancient soul-tree born from blood and regret?”

”It is not possession,” Mingshi said calmly. ”It is transcendence.”

”Oh? So now you’re offering me enlightenment?” Lin Mu snorted.

”No. We are offering you power beyond immortality. A path to become something greater.”

”...A Celestial?” Lin Mu asked with an arched brow, the words laced with mockery.

Mingshi paused.

Then, with absolute seriousness, he said, ”Yes.”

A long silence followed.

Then—

Lin Mu burst out laughing again.

This time, the laughter was sharper—like a blade whetted on irony. His shoulders shook, and he placed a hand on the monolith as if to steady himself.

”You want to tempt me with this?” Lin Mu said between chuckles. ”This is your master plan?”

He straightened, his gaze like a falling star—sharp and unstoppable.

”You picked the worst possible person to tempt with power.”

Lin Mu was starting to understand what they were trying to offer him.

’So all this is just a method of becoming a Celestial.’ Lin Mu understood.

While to many other immortals this would be impossible to resist, to Lin Mu this was all just a joke. He was not an immortal teetering at the end of his longevity, fearing the next Tribulation. He was young with plenty of life ahead of him.

And most important of it all, he was not alone. He had multiple paths ahead of him and people who could guide him.

The honeyed words, the Elder was saying were but just a facade. Lin Mu could tell with one look, the Ephemera Tree was no benevolent existence like the Green Petaled Urim Lotus. It was a fiend in disguise!

Becoming a Celestial for him was not a matter of question, but of when.

Mingshi frowned ever so slightly. ”You are not tempted in the least?”

”Not even a bit,” Lin Mu said, his tone almost pitying. ”What use do I have for becoming a Celestial like this? So I can sit on a throne and weep over eternity? Grow vines out of my back and hand out cryptic wisdom to wandering cultivators?”

He tapped his chest.

”I already walk my path. It may be crooked, broken, and filled with the corpses of foes who tried to kill me at times. Other times it maybe me helping others... Teaching my disciple, enjoying time with my companions... but it’s mine.”

Mingshi looked disturbed now. For the first time, his calm exterior faltered.

”...You don’t seek immortality?”

”I seek my truth,” Lin Mu said. ”And if it takes me to the edge of Heaven or the pit of Hell, I’ll walk it with my eyes open.”

He stepped forward, his voice iron.

”You think I’ll kneel because you dangle a title over my head? No. That’s not power. That’s a leash dressed in silk.”

Mingshi stared at him.

A storm raged in the elder’s eyes—hope clashing with doubt, prophecy straining against reality.

”You... are unlike the others.”

Lin Mu smirked. ”Finally catching on, are you?”

He turned from the monolith, hands clasped behind his back.

”Tell your Ephemera Tree to keep waiting,” he said. ”I’m not here to become something else. I’m here to find the truth.”

”And if that truth lies beneath its roots?” Mingshi asked quietly.

Lin Mu looked back, eyes gleaming.

”Then I’ll dig it out myself.”